architectsAlliance/Bloor-Yorkville BIA

The architects rendering of Bloor Street's future looks like a great place to walk, but there are no bikes in this picture

Protesting the Bloor Street Transformation sure makes for strange bedfellows. But an upscale china retailer wanting more parking spaces and a group of bike lane advocates have teamed up to take the city to court over the construction project currently chewing its way from Church Street to Avenue Road. While the desired outcome of William Ashley’s lawsuit contending the city’s environmental assessment for the Mink Mile remodel may seem at odds with the goals of the Safe Cycling Coalition, both groups are more concerned with the questionable way in which the whole project came about.

The transformation has been hailed as a pedestrian-friendly revitalization that will encourage shoppers to spend far more time salivating in and around the big-ticket boutiques of the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood. And there’s no doubt that “extensive tree plantings in innovative and sustainable soil cell systems, widened granite sidewalks, seasonal flowerbeds and attractive up-lighting for each tree” would enhance the experience of even the casual heel-toe commuter. But some are arguing that the effort to keep pedestrians in the area is making it more difficult for all other traffic (both auto and bicycle) to get through.

Not everyone is crying for a place to park. But the fact that there aren’t any bike lanes planned  for this integral east-west route only underscores the argument that groups like Take the Tooker  and Bells on Bloor have been making for years. But the project apparently didn’t register as an opportunity to make some headway towards the city’s target of 495 kilometres of bike lanes by 2012, or as means for improving safety along Toronto’s most dangerous cycling route.  

Safe Cycling Coalition spokesperson Angela Bischoff reiterates, saying: “The city’s bike plan didn’t account for bike lanes on Bloor. [But] in the late ’90s there was a traffic count done on Bloor [at Castle Frank] and 14 per cent of the traffic was bikes. That was back then. The word ‘bicycle’ didn’t make in to the Bloor Street plan even once.” There aren’t even any bike racks planned for the new streetscape.

This exclusion prompted Bischoff and Kristen Courtney, a lawyer who did her studies in environmental assessments, to look into the project’s classification. What they found, according to Bischoff, was that the project was registered as Class “A,” meaning that they didn’t have to do any consultation or accomadation of cyclists. But this option is supposed to be reserved for construction projects costing up to $2.5 million. The Bloor Street Transformation is priced at around of $25 million. “It’s a major transformation,” says Bischoff, “which means that the city would be obligated to do community consultation, and would have to abide by provincial legislation to accommodate all road users.” Meaning, of course, cars and bikes.

Although Bischoff says that they tried to alert the city’s public works department with legal presentations, it wasn’t until she went to the provincial Environmental Commissioner’s Officer and requested an investigation that any kind of legal action began. “Once we did that, William Ashley picked up on it and went straight to the courts,” she says.

According to the coalition’s press release, “In August 2008 William Ashley China Ltd. filed an action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Divisional Court) for a declaration that the city’s decision to proceed with the Bloor St. Transformation Project was illegal.” Bischoff and the newly formed Safe Cycling Coalition sought the right to intervene in order to strengthen William Ashley’s case. The store and the city’s legal division, as well as the court in question, gave the coalition the green light. Consequently, they will be appearing at the October 9th court hearing.

“We’re excited by the prospect of using the courts,” says Bischoff. “It is a coming of age for the cycling community.”

With a decision in their favour, the protesting parties will be able celebrate the fact that the community might actually have a say in Bloor Street’s makeover. But it won’t be long before they are at opposite sides of the consultation table pitting extra parking spaces against dedicated bike lanes. So much for pillow talk.

Email us at: LETTERS@EYEWEEKLY.COM or send your questions to EYEWEEKLY.COM
625 Church St, 6th Floor, Toronto M4Y 2G1